Media Center Viability in 2015 on a Mini

[sammyman]

I had a Mac Mini setup as a media center back in 2010. It was possibly the best solution at the time. Then I switched to a Roku and really haven't gone back to looking at Mini's as a solid solution for a home media center.

What are the benefits to using a Mac Mini as a media center in 2015? I have a Plex Pass and use plex primarily for media.

 

[GGJstudios]

I had a Mac Mini setup as a media center back in 2010. It was possibly the best solution at the time. Then I switched to a Roku and really haven't gone back to looking at Mini's as a solid solution for a home media center.

What are the benefits to using a Mac Mini as a media center in 2015? I have a Plex Pass and use plex primarily for media.

It's no different than in 2010. I use a Mac mini as my media center, running Plex. It still works extremely well.

 

[sammyman]

It's no different than in 2010. I use a Mac mini as my media center, running Plex. It still works extremely well.

Ok. Maybe I have just forgotten the benefits of a Mac Mini media center. The only thing I can think of is that you can leave it on while drawing very little power to run plex all the time. I currently leave my desktop on all the time.

Roku seems to do just about all of the same things, right?

 

[GGJstudios]

Ok. Maybe I have just forgotten the benefits of a Mac Mini media center. The only thing I can think of is that you can leave it on while drawing very little power to run plex all the time. I currently leave my desktop on all the time.

Roku seems to do just about all of the same things, right?

I haven't explored Roku. My mini can run the Plex Media Server and the Plex Home Theater, as well as serve for other computing uses.

 

[paulrbeers]

I had a Mac Mini setup as a media center back in 2010. It was possibly the best solution at the time. Then I switched to a Roku and really haven't gone back to looking at Mini's as a solid solution for a home media center.

What are the benefits to using a Mac Mini as a media center in 2015? I have a Plex Pass and use plex primarily for media.

Personally a mini as a playback device is a little silly in my opinion. I left the desktop as a media center realm a long time ago because there is always a bit of fuss to make it all just work. Media streamers (such as a roku) take all the fuss out of it. You just need to have one computer (j use a 2012 mini) as a back end plex server. Streamers(roku) do have some playback limitations, but for the no fuss of it (no wife calling me when I am out and about complaining about something not working), I am willing to live with in those confines.

 

[David58117]

Mine is running kodi with navi-x and project free tv.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I tried a roku with plex, and found it...much more limiting than the offerings on Kodi.

If there was a box that offered streaming from those sites, I'd switch. But aside from the 2nd gen Apple TV (and BoxeeBox once upon a time), there doesn't appear to be much?